Favorite Releases from December 2025
December tends to blur into accounting exercises and best-of rhetoric, but the music itself had other plans. The month arrived with a steady stream of releases, making narrowing things down genuinely difficult. Refracted’s album for Mind Express stayed grounded in slow-moving ambient and downtempo structures, while the long-awaited return of Voices from the Lake delivered a record shaped by melody without slipping into sentimentality. Rambadu’s new album on Hypnus leaned firmly into hypnotic and tribal frameworks, and Anthony Child’s latest work on Old Technologyexplored arpeggiated synth forms with a focus on pacing and space.
Our own Never Late imprint returned with Gëinst’s Hiber Trace, a release built around subtle shifts and internal tension. Samurai Music’s sublabel Saibai continued to take shape through Pianeti Sintetici’s new EP, where halftime rhythms stretch and reconfigure. Human Space Machine and Sunju Hargun launched the HSH Series with four tracks designed with the dance floor in mind, while Zohar and Nymfo’s collaboration lets contrast function as its core mechanism. Monochrome’s Primärwald III extended a strong compilation run, and Unrush Tapes 03 once again set aside space for inward-facing music that feels intentional rather than ornamental.
Anthony Child - of the Beginning
[Old Technology]
Pianeti Sintetici - 侍栽培二
[Saibai]
Refracted - Archive of Unmapped Terrains
[Mind Express]
Various Artists - Primärwald III
[Monochrome]
Gëinst - Hiber Trace
[Never Late]
Rambadu - Energy Systems
[Hypnus Records]
Human Space Machine & Sunju Hargun - HSH001
[HSH Series]
Bandcamp
Soundcloud - Human Space Machine
Soundcloud - Sunju Hargun
Various Artists - The Unrush Tapes 03
[Unrush]
Zohar & Nymfo - Mirrors
[Dekmantel]
Bandcamp
Soundcloud - Zohar
Soundcloud - Nymfo